Small books

I acknowledge a debt to Paul Johnson and his work on folding and cutting paper to make small books.

There are many ways of doing this. My preferred option, which I have made 100s of times for writers of all ages, is made out of 2 sheets of A4. In the photos above, the white sheet makes the pages, the pink sheet makes the cover. Breaking a 'story' into 6 'pages' can be a useful discipline anyway, but there are no limits.

As you can see (left hand photo), the white sheet is folded into 8 equal rectangles, and then torn or cut three-quarters of the length down the middle. This allows it to be folded as in the second photo, and later inserted into the pink cover.

The pink cover is made by first taking the shorter edge, aligning it just 2 mm short of the opposite edge, and folding it flat. Open it out, rotate the paper 180 degrees and repeat the process so that there are two parallel creases in the middle of the paper, about 2 mm apart. This will later form the spine. Now, open the paper out and fold it along its length so that each edge is about 1 cm short of its opposite (as in the middle photo). Finally take one of the narrow edges and align it 2 mm short of the nearer centre fold. Press down and crease. Rotate the paper 180 degrees and repeat with the other narrow edge.

To assemble the 'book', slide the outer pages of the white sheet into the pouches created by the folds of the pink sheet (as in the fourth photo). The 2 mm gaps should allow sufficient space to slide the white paper in, and not leave the book too loose. (see photo of finished book on far right).